41: A Portrait of My Father

George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, has authored a personal biography of his father, George H. W. Bush, the 41st president. Forty-three men have served as president of the United States. Countless books have been written about them. But never before has a president told the story of his father, another president, through his own eyes and in his own words. A unique and intimate biography, the book covers the entire scope of the elder President Bush’s life and career.

No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington

A native of Birmingham, Alabama who overcame the racism of the Civil Rights era to become a brilliant academic and expert on foreign affairs, Rice distinguished herself as an advisor to George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. Once Bush was elected, she served as his chief adviser on national-security issues – a job whose duties included harmonizing the relationship between the Secretaries of State and Defense.

Known and Unknown

With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Donald Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history.

Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors

Growing out of President Bush's own outreach and the ongoing work of the George W. Bush Institute's Military Service Initiative, Portraits of Courage brings together 66 full-color portraits and a four-panel mural painted by President Bush of members of the United States military who have served our nation with honor since 9/11 - and whom he has come to know personally.

My Life (Complete)

President Bill Clinton's My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public. It shows us the progress of a remarkable American who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House - a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process that manifested itself at every stage of his life.

In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir

In his unmistakable voice and with an insider's eye on history, former Vice President Dick Cheney tells the story of his life and the nearly four decades he has spent at the center of American politics and power. In My Time is truly the last word about an incredible political era, by a man who lived it and helped define it - with courage and without compromise.

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Among the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S. Grant’s is certainly one of the finest, and it is arguably the most notable literary achievement of any American president: a lucid, compelling, and brutally honest chronicle of triumph and failure. From his frontier boyhood, to his heroics in battle, to the grinding poverty from which the Civil War ironically rescued him, these memoirs are a mesmerizing, deeply moving account of a brilliant man told with great courage.

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush

Based on rigorous research, hours of private interviews, and extraordinary access to Bush's diaries and to his family, Destiny and Power paints a vivid and affecting portrait of the distinctive American life of a man from the Greatest Generation: his childhood in Connecticut, his heroic service in World War II, his entry into the Texas oil business, and his storied rise in politics from congressman to UN ambassador to head of the CIA to 41st president of the United States.

Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace

It could be said that Leon Panetta has had two of the most consequential careers of any American public servant in the past 50 years. His first career, beginning as an army intelligence officer and including a distinguished run as one of Congress' most powerful and respected members, lasted 35 years and culminated in his transformational role as Clinton's budget czar and White House chief of staff.

Killing Reagan

Just two months into his presidency, Ronald Reagan lay near death after a gunman's bullet came within inches of his heart. His recovery was nothing short of remarkable - or so it seemed. But Reagan was grievously injured, forcing him to encounter a challenge that few men ever face. Could he silently overcome his traumatic experience while at the same time carrying out the duties of the most powerful man in the world?

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War

From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he'd long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot

More than a million listeners have thrilled to Bill O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln, the can't-stop-listening work of nonfiction about the shocking assassination that changed the course of American history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts in gripping detail the brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy—and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president but also sent the nation into the cataclysmic division of the Vietnam War and its culture-changing aftermath.

The Operator: Firing the Shots That Killed Osama Bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior

Stirringly evocative, thought provoking, and often jaw dropping, The Operator ranges across SEAL Team Operator Robert O'Neill's awe-inspiring 400-mission career that included his involvement in attempts to rescue "Lone Survivor" Marcus Luttrell and abducted-by-Somali-pirates Captain Richard Phillips and culminated in those famous three shots that dispatched the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden.

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House

Theirs was the most captivating American political partnership since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger: a bold and untested president and his seasoned, relentless vice president. Confronted by one crisis after another, they struggled to protect the country, remake the world, and define their own relationship along the way. In Days of Fire, Peter Baker chronicles the history of the most consequential presidency in modern times through the prism of its two most compelling characters, capturing the elusive and shifting alliance of George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney as no historian has done before.

At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA

In the whirlwind of accusations and recriminations that has attended the post 9/11 world, one man's vital testimony has been conspicuously absent. Candid and compelling, At the Center of the Storm is George Tenet's memoir of his life at the CIA - a revelatory look at the inner workings of America's top intelligence agency and its dealings with national leaders at home and abroad.

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership

It Worked for Me is filled with vivid experiences and lessons learned that have shaped the legendary career of the four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. At its heart are Powell's "Thirteen Rules" - such as "Get mad, then get over it" and "Share credit" - that introduce his principles for effective leadership: conviction, hard work, and, above all, respect for others. A natural storyteller, Powell offers warm and engaging parables with wise advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond.

The Conscience of a Conservative

When it was first published, The Conscience of a Conservative reignited the American conservative movement and made Barry Goldwater a political star. It influenced countless conservatives in the United States and helped to lay the foundation for the Reagan Revolution in 1980. Just as vital today as it was then, this book addresses many topics that could be torn from today's headlines.

The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices are not appeased....

Publisher's Summary

President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life.

Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America's 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life.

In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings listeners inside the Texas governor's mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America's most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.

President Bush writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his accomplishments reforming education, treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, and safeguarding the country amid chilling warnings of additional terrorist attacks. He also offers intimate new details on his decision to quit drinking, his discovery of faith, and his relationship with his family.

A groundbreaking new brand of memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on one of the most consequential eras in American history - and the man at the center of events.

Where does Decision Points rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a great book for those wishing to see George Bush's decisions from his point of view. Love him or hate him, read this book to see his perspective. It may change your mind or solidify the view you already had.

What does Ron McLarty bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator was great. He was easy to listen to, and brought the story life.

Any additional comments?

I love to listen to presidential perspectives on the events that occured durring their time. There is no greater office and no greater burdan than the Presidency of the United States. Because hindsight is often 20/20, much can be learned of life in their time, compared to life now. Granted not much time has passed for this one, but perspectives of the President himself cannot be disputed. They are his view of the problems he encountered.

I probably would...I usually only listen to self-improvement books more than once, but this one is so full of information and facts, it might be worth another read/listen.

What about Ron McLarty’s performance did you like?

He spoke with the same "good ole boy" spirit and pace as President Bush.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Great leaders are not always in your face. He confidently surrounded himself with superior people and used their expertise to our benefit; taking front stage when needed, but truly leading through delegation when most appropriate.

Everyone should read/listen to this book. This strikes me as an honest, forthright description of the issues, challenges and responses made by the Bush Administration to the fantastic challenges that the President faced. This is also a good analysis of how the government actually runs, makes decisions, and leads. Anyone can be elected President, but not everyone can lead this country. Bush tells you honestly how he saw the position and how he approached his challenges. This is an excellent work.

What did you like best about this story?

Clearly the descriptions concerning the decision making about the responses to 9/11 were fascinating since we lived though the events and they are so fresh in our minds.

Have you listened to any of Ron McLarty’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is a nice listen.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The description of how Bush was actually in charge of everything, and how he demanded that everyone threat the oval office with respect at all times.

Any additional comments?

Listen to this, Cheney's, and Rumsfeld's books and you will have a very clear view of how America makes decision, how the bureaucracy works, the extent and limitations of American power.

Voted for this guy twice; agreed with some of his decisions. The book outlines why he made the decisions in a format that makes it sound defensive versus educational.<br/><br/>I would recommend it, but adjust your expectations.

What made the experience of listening to Decision Points the most enjoyable?

What made it enjoyable for me was being able to look behind the scene and see why the decisions were made the way they were on certain issues. It helped to see what all happened in his decision making and what led to his decisions.

Which scene was your favorite?

The story of him going to the 9-11 sight after the attack and being with the rescue workers after the attack and his speech that he gave.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Would you consider the audio edition of Decision Points to be better than the print version?

A fantastic window into the life of a person who has had numerous trials and tribulations. His principals and convictions are admirable and his character stands out. Regardless of what side of the political debate you stand on, you cannot question his heart or integrity.